Τετάρτη, 22 Αυγούστου 2012

Koss sparkplug

Many times I listen to the music with earphones, with my wife watching TV in relatively high volume. However the earphones I use don’t isolate quite, leaving the external noise quite intact. So that I open up the volume of my mp3 player, that covers up the noise, and then annoys a bit my ears

Last time we have visited the local store of ‘Public’ mega stores located outside of the city. I there found a quite exotic design from Koss branded as ‘sparkplug’(= injection! )
It was a bit expensive at €25 (but not comparing to some other models found in the net priced £300….) I asked the seller about the its audio quality comparing to other models from Creative, also shown in the same stand the seller replied that Sparkplug has the best audio..
I later thought again that the question somehow silly, from two ways:
-every audiophile knows the high quality of Koss products
-the seller doesn’t know what to reply and sells by the price!

I finally bought it, accounting over external noise isolation.

Returning back to the house and uncovering the package’s cover , I found these quite impressive points compared to other products:

2- There is a label not to throw it on the waste. As per recent directives , electronic appliances must be returned to the stores for recycling in order not to corrupt the environment.

See on the picture below for the 2 above points:

3- A very soft cable comparing to other earplugs / It easily muddle itself

4- A soft cushion easily formed by the thumb that plugs into the ears . Inside it there is a metallic pipe that acts as audio feeder. I do not know what happened but once cushion threw out of the base pipe .The other cushion seems solid

And here is a simplified report for its fidelity and isolation after many hours of use and comparative analysis with the other earphones :

Audio : Audio sounds great with excellent response , quite better than others .
Comapring to the Degen 929 has the same frequency response though higher mid-tones
Comparing with the Sansa plug-earphones seems still better
As expected, as deeper pushed inside the ear , the bassier is. I prefer using the deeper for flatter audio

Comparing to the Koss UR20 full ear–phones audio goes very close but sparkplug has Stronger mid frequencies

Isolation : I do not know what happens but the noise has the same level without earphones except for cutting trebles even if I push the cushion to the deepest . May be the problem comes from my ears? POssibly it comes from the holes on the rear of the earplugs as shown below:

Connectivity : The plug cannot be plugged into a mechanical audio splitter. In contrast a wire splitter it can be fully plugged into the cable splitter for A/B testing with other earphones. This reminds me a earphone from Ipod I borrowed for another test. Its plug cold not be plugged in the mechanical splitter

As in results the earplugs have a good audio with relatively poor isolation and marginally useless stereo plug.